At the annual WWDC conference, Apple will reveal a new operating system for the Apple TV box – to be used in the coming HDTV. The OS will contain a “control out” API for external devices, according to a report by BGR.

New Apple TV OS on June?
Apple will kick off their annual WWDC conference on June 11. For several years, Apple unveiled the iPhone at WWDC but now it focused more on software. The new Mac OSX is there and iOS 6 for iOS devices is also expected to be unveiled.

But that’s not all. According to BGR – which has been right about Apple’s future plans in the past – Apple will also unveil the new operating system for the Apple TV box; an OS that will be extended to the coming HDTV.


The Apple TV user interface looks like this today

BGR has received the information from a “trusted source”. The source also claims to know that the OS will be much more feature-complete than the current OS on the Apple TV box. A new “control out” API is also highlighted.

The API will allow developers of TV boxes and other external devices to implement remote controlling via Apple’s remote, allowing things like the EPG data or channel info to show up on the Apple TV. However, how it will work without any dedicated output/inputs in the Apple TV box is not described.

It is not uncommon for Apple to do it this way. The iPhone’s App Store, and the first iPad, was also unveiled months before the actual release to give developers time to develop apps and services.

The source says that only the OS and not an actual HDTV will be unveiled. Well, we believe it when we see it. FlatpanelsHD will cover WWDC to see if anything pops up.

- Source: BGR